Monday 2 June 1662

Up early about business and then to the Wardrobe with Mr. Moore, and spoke to my Lord about the exchange of the crusados into sterling money, and other matters. So to my father at Tom’s, and after some talk with him away home, and by and by comes my father to dinner with me, and then by coach, setting him down in Cheapside, my wife and I to Mrs. Clarke’s at Westminster, the first visit that ever we both made her yet. We found her in a dishabille, intending to go to Hampton Court to-morrow. We had much pretty discourse, and a very fine lady she is. Thence by water to Salisbury Court, and Mrs. Turner not being at home, home by coach, and so after walking on the leads and supper to bed. This day my wife put on her slasht wastecoate, which is very pretty.

20 Annotations

First Reading

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Mrs Clarke be no home maker "...We found her in a dishabille,..."

dirk  •  Link

John Evelyn's diary today...

"The L: Mayor & Aldermen made their Addresses, presenting her 1000 pounds in Gold: Now saw I her Portuguesse Ladys, & the Guarda Damas or mother of her maides; & the old knight, a lock of whose haire quite covered the rest of his bald-pate, bound on by a threit, very oddly: I had newes sent me from home, that a Swarme of my Bees tooke flight, & hived them selves betweene a Cabine in his Majesties ship, the Oxford fregat; which telling the King of he tooke for a good omen; desiring me that none should disturb them. I saw the rich Gudola sent his Majestie from the state of Venice, but it was not comparable for swiftnesse to our common wherries, though managed by Venetians: &c:"

dirk  •  Link

"slasht wastecoate"

Slashed waistcoat ???
What are we to think of this?

JWB  •  Link

Onomatopaeia
Slasht better than slashed.

JWB  •  Link

dishabille
"The most powerful women in the second half of the Century are mainly mistresses, and so the "power" look for women becomes increasingly sexy. A fashion begins, late in this era for "dishabille" or dress that looks like a lady just went for a tumble in the broom closet. Conservative writers continue to decry the sensuous look of fashionable women's dress, but these critics increasingly are outnumbered by Restoration poets like Robert Herrick who say "A sweet disorder in the dress/ kindles in clothes, a wantonness.."

The History of Fashion and Dress
Theatre 355 Online Version University of Alaska Fairbanks
Instructor, Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.
http://www.costumes.org/classes/f…

debbie  •  Link

Slashed means that the waistcoat was made of two layers of fabric, with the outer layer being decoratively cut to show the under layer, sort of the "ripped jeans" of the time.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Still a popular mode of attire, now available for promenading and displaying the time of birth and other popular attributes.
" dishabille"

Mary  •  Link

dishabille.

In this case it may simply mean that, despite the hour, Mrs. Clarke has not yet climbed into her usual 'receiving visitors' outfit but is stlll in her informal morning garb, as she is busy sorting out the finery for tomorrow's journey to Hampton Court. If she had actually been in her nightshift, I'm sure that Pepys would have mentioned it specifically. Also possible that she has not yet got her face on. (She was in the habit of 'painting').

A. Hamilton  •  Link

crusados

The entries by Pedro and Language Hat under this term are worth reading. From Pedro, "It came into its own in the reign of Manuel (1495-1521) who made a new coin ... [that] gained great worldwide potential."

An early version of the Euro? Sam's mention of exchange -- plus ca change. (Sorry, no French keyboard.)

Martin  •  Link

Leads
They are going to wear that roof right out. Lead tiles are pretty brittle. Expect an entry about a leaking roof.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

"A sweet disorder in the dress"

Tho he livd well into Restoration years, Herrick's versifying was pretty much completed by 1648, when his major volume was printed. This poem and its mates ("Whenas in silks my Julia goes,/
Ah, then, methinks, how sweetly flows/ the liquefaction of her clothes") reflect a Cavalier rather than a Restoration taste.

Bradford  •  Link

Can the penchant for picturesquely negligent dress be tied to a political stance?
Support your answer with three specific examples, one from each of the succeeding centuries.

Australian Susan  •  Link

OK, Bradford how about this:
1). French revolutionary dress - Marianne famously showing a breast or breasts
2). 'Bluestocking women' who supported women's right to vote wearing what were decried as 'mannish' costumes which included ties.
3). Che Guevara berets in the 60s.

Bradford  •  Link

Beautifully done, A. Susan: full points. If you wish to follow this elaborate URL (courtesy Maureen B.), you can find the dishabille principle set to song in 1733, with further sociological observations and illustration (takes a minute to come up):

http://www.peopleplayuk.org/colle…

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"spoke to my Lord about the exchange of the crusados into sterling money"

The coin in which part of the Queen's portion was paid.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘crusado, n.1 < Portuguese cruzado lit. ‘crossed, marked with the cross’.
A Portuguese coin bearing the figure of a cross, originally of gold . .
. . a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iv. 26 Beleeue me, I had rather loose my purse Full of Crusadoes.
1683 Britanniæ Speculum 267 Eight hundred Millions of Reas, or two Millions of Crusadoes, amounting to about three hundred thousand pounds sterling . . ‘

‘dishabille, < French déshabillé . .
1. The state of being partly undressed, or dressed in a negligent or careless style; undress. Usually in phr. in dishabille (= French en déshabillé).
1684 M. Morgan in M. Morgan et al. tr. Plutarch Morals I. Pref. sig. av, To surprise his Mistress in Dishabileé.

2. concr. A garment worn in undress; a dress or costume of a negligent style.
1673 W. Wycherley Gentleman Dancing-master v. i, Contented..instead of variety of new gowns and rich petticoats, with her dishabillie, or flame-colour gown called Indian.
. . 1713 J. Gay in Guardian 1 Sept. 1/1 We have a kind of Sketch of Dress..which, as the invention was Foreign, is called a Dishabille: every thing is thrown on with a loose and careless Air . . ‘

Third Reading

Irish Susan  •  Link

‘Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all th'adulteries of art.
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.’

Ben Jonson.

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